The NZ Herald published has an article detailing an Australian woman’s fight to have a tubal ligation. She is repeatedly denied the procedure because of her age. It gets better, her husband has requested a vasectomy but is also denied because of his wife’s age. The details on why she wants the procedure are irrelevant, as is their ages. The point is, it’s her decision and hers alone.

According to Family Planning, in New Zealand it’s made out to be a simple thing, getting a tubal ligation. You simply ask for one and they’ll refer you to a hospital or specialist that can do it. What they don’t inform you (at least on their website) is that there’s a point system involved. ‘X’ amount of ‘points’ are required to have the procedure unless you can afford to go privately. Conclusive information on how exactly this points system operates is proving hard to come by. It seems that to get enough points one must be over 30 and have already produced a number of offspring. Purely having made the decision yourself is not enough, the state gets the final say.

Did I mention that if someone wants a vasectomy there are no hoops to jump through. Just an appointment at your GP or Family Planning, a comparatively small fee of a few hundred dollars and boom! No more baby creating material produced.

Ever since I was a teenager I never wanted children. People always said “Oh, you’re only young, you’ll change your mind.” Well, now that I am about to hit 30 the ‘natural’ desire to procreate still hasn’t kicked in (come on nature!). Apparently it's a case of “you just haven’t met the right man yet” or “Just because you’re queer doesn’t mean you can’t have a baby these days!” What part of no do you not understand? Also, please educate me on why I’m incapable of making this decision? (or any decision about my body for that matter) Want an abortion? Sure! But first you need permission from two certifying consultants. And please tick the box that says you require an abortion on mental health grounds. Not because you made an informed decision.

I understand where you are coming from but I think the difficulty around getting a tubal ligation "easily" is because it is much more difficult to surgically reverse, unlike a vasectomy. I think the medical profession is perhaps, under the guise of 'protecting us from ourselves' as people are statistically, possibly, more likely to change their minds than not. What it is more likely to be about is saving tax payers money for what they consider to be higher need surgery?